


Coming Home

by seibelsays



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Feelings Realization, Fluff, Marvel Fluff Bingo 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-10
Updated: 2020-03-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:34:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23081788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seibelsays/pseuds/seibelsays
Summary: After a long mission, Bucky just wants to come home. He just doesn't quite realize what he means by that.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Darcy Lewis
Comments: 57
Kudos: 414
Collections: Marvel Fluff Bingo





	Coming Home

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little fluff for Bucky's birthday!
> 
> Fills the square "Realised Feelings" for my Marvel Fluff Bingo 2020 card.

Bucky shifted in his seat a little, coming down from the adrenaline and trying to get comfortable. The familiar post-mission weariness was settling into his bones and wouldn't let go until he was home, but he always tried to shake at least a little bit of it on the way. His home was his sanctuary and he hated bringing work back with him.

The Quinjet seat was unbearably uncomfortable though, and there was sweat and grime and a lot of other things stuck to both him and his gear that he didn't want to think about. He glanced at the display next to his seat. 60 minutes until wheels down. That meant 75 minutes until he could shower and 90 minutes until he could eat. After that, it was only another three hour trip home.

Unless.

He glanced at Clint, sitting in the seat next to him. "Hey - you headed home after this?"

Clint nodded. "Yeah, Nate's got a school thing, I want to try to be there."

Bucky grinned at him. "Think we can sweet talk FRIDAY into a detour?"

"Someone's anxious to get back to Indiana," Natasha commented.

"Don't knock Indiana," Bucky retorted. "Besides, I miss my cat."

Natasha's expression quirked into a knowing smile and Bucky felt the temperature in the jet drop a few degrees. "What?" he asked warily.

"We've been gone three weeks - who's been looking after the little monster?" Clint asked.

Bucky narrowed his eyes at him. Something was up - and it felt a little like a plot against him. "Alpine is a very loving cat."

"From a distance," Steve chimed in. "You gotta admit, Buck, she's not exactly...cuddly."

"Maybe that's just you," he shot back.

"She tried to disembowel me," Steve grumbled.

"She'd just been shot at! You're grumpy too when you've been shot at!"

"Not that time," Steve retorted. "I'm talking about the first time I met Alpine."

"You almost sat on her, you big lug. I'd swipe at you too." Alpine was a very loving cat. She was. She was just...particular.

"So who's the lucky cat-sitter?" Natasha said, effectively ending the argument.

"What does it matter?"

Natasha shrugged, far too casually.

Bucky rolled his eyes. She clearly wasn't going to let it go, for some odd reason. "Darcy's lookin' in on her."

Both Natasha and Steve's eyes lit up, their smiles growing in unison.

"That was creepy," Clint muttered.

"Thank you," Bucky muttered back. "Yikes. Do you two practice that?"

"Will Darcy be there to...welcome you home?" Natasha asked, her apparent glee not dimmed in the slightest by Clint and Bucky's comments.

"Maybe?" Bucky shrugged. "Sometimes she stays over, keeps an eye on things when a mission runs long like this. Last time we were away for more than two weeks, she even cleaned out my fridge."

"That's real sweet of her," Steve said. "I'm not looking forward to that at all when I get home."

"She's a good friend," Bucky agreed.

Natasha huffed. "Friend. Okay."

Bucky let out an annoyed sigh, exaggerating it a touch so Natasha would hopefully get the point. "What about it? Am I not allowed to have friends now?"

"No one is sayin' that, Buck," Steve said. "You and Darcy just spend a lot of time together, that's all. It's nice."

Wait.

"Are you...insinuating something here, Steve? Because if that's the game we're playing, than I could certainly agree that you and-"

"Not at all," Steve interrupted, with a sharp glare at Bucky. "No one is insinuating anything at all."

"Nope," Natasha agreed, her gleeful grin returning full force. "Nothing at all." She reached over and tapped a few buttons on the console. "We'll drop you and Clint before heading back to New York. So you can go see your friend that much faster."

"My cat. I'm going home to my cat."

"Sure. That's what I said."

* * *

30 infuriating minutes later, after one last parting waggle of eyebrows from Natasha, Bucky opened the door to his house and felt a tiny bit of the tension seep out of his shoulders. He dropped his gear in a pile near the door, resolving to deal with it later - after he'd had a shower and a sandwich and at least 15 minutes of cuddles with Alpine. If she was amenable. 

He missed the fuzzy little thing, okay? He was attached and not afraid or ashamed to admit it. She was better than most people.

He kicked off his boots and left the mudroom, making his way through the silent house, over to the stairs and up to his bedroom so he could clean up. The hot water leached a little more of the weariness out of him as he relaxed into the spray, staying in the shower just a few moments longer than strictly necessary. He'd invested in a good water heater for a reason, and it was moments like this that he took full advantage. Still, he generally couldn't justify spending too long under the hot water - at a certain point, it just felt wasteful. He reluctantly turned off the water and exited the shower, drying himself off quickly. He pulled on his softest sweatpants and sweater, the fabric a stark contrast to the harsh feeling of the body armor he'd been living in the last few weeks.

The house was quiet as he descended back to the first floor. Normally, he appreciated it - the quiet neighborhood was restful and a comfort most of the time. But right now, there was something about it. Something that just wasn't sitting right. Maybe it was the last remnants of the mission - maybe he hadn't quite yet shaken off the hyper vigilance of the last few weeks.

Or maybe he was just lonely. Coming back to an empty house had never really bothered him in the past, but -

"Mwrp?" Alpine's tiny meow came from somewhere near his feet, interrupting his thoughts. He smiled down at her, reaching to pick her up. What was he thinking? His house wasn't empty - not as long as Alpine was here.

"Hiya girl," he murmured. "Miss me?"

"Mwrp," Alpine replied, clearly indifferent to him.

"Well, I missed you," Bucky said. "But I understand - you had Darcy looking after you. I wouldn't miss me either, if I were in your shoes. Given the choice, she's clearly the better option." He carried Alpine into the kitchen, looking for the little bag of cat treats he kept there, feeling more of his malaise drift away as Alpine purred and burrowed into his chest. Maybe she wasn’t as indifferent as she pretended. It was nice.

Cats were magic.

Bucky set Alpine down, dropping a few treats on the floor for her. He smiled as she happily dug in, then took a quick look around, assessing his kitchen after three weeks away.

Darcy had cleared out the fruit bowl and bread box, and presumably emptied the refrigerator of any expired milk or produce. The calendar had flipped over from February to March and his mail was neatly sorted into piles - bills pinned to the cork board next to the calendar, junk in a small pile on the counter above the recycling bin, everything else tucked away in the mail sorter. All little things that he'd never asked her to do when he asked her to look after Alpine when he was called away on long missions, but he appreciated all the same. She really was a lifesaver.

It had all started so randomly - a mission that lasted longer than anticipated, a panicked call to Laura Barton to see if someone could check on Alpine. A brave someone, given that Alpine wasn't all that fond of strangers. When he'd finally come back from that trip, he found one Darcy Lewis curled up on his couch, with a purring Alpine in her lap. She'd been his first call every time they got called out since and was always the first person he saw when he returned.

Which was why he needed to figure out how to get Natasha and Steve to back the hell off about...whatever they were on about in regards to Darcy. They had far too much of an interest in their friendship than Bucky was comfortable with, and he hoped to hell that they'd never said anything of the sort to Darcy. Just the thought was mortifying - Darcy was sweet and his friend and deserved exactly none of the trouble that Natasha and Steve were stirring.

And the thought was ridiculous anyway. Darcy could have anyone she wanted with one crook of her finger. Even if he were interested, she'd laugh in his face at the mere suggestion and rightly so.

He wandered into the living room and felt the muscles in his back relax a little as he took in all the tiny changes that had happened while he was away, all the little signs of life. Things put away in a slightly different way, a few cat toys scattered in front of the couch, a coaster on the end table that still had a ring of condensation on it. Darcy had clearly been spending some time there, which he welcomed - it was nice to see the house really be lived in. So often, when it was just him for long periods of time, it felt more like a museum or a cover. It was so ingrained in him not to leave any trace of his presence that the tiny changes Darcy's presence made stood out and were a balm.

Her mug on the drying rack, her book on the coffee table, her bag of knitting next to the couch. He could see a new project peeking out from the bag, something silver and red sprouting from her needles. He wondered who it was for this time - Darcy gifted her knitting to anyone who crossed her path. Maybe she'd let him see it when she was done. Maybe one day he'd work up the courage to ask her to make him something. Or even better - ask her to teach him to knit, too.

He grinned a little at the sight, Darcy's little touches doing more to relax and ground him after a mission than anything else he'd tried so far. She was a good friend and he was so lucky to have her in his life. Natasha and Steve were entirely off base in thinking there was anything more to it than that.

An unexpected pang of longing ran through him at the thought.

Darcy, she....

And he, well...

Oh.

 _Oh_.

"Bucky? You're home!" Darcy's voice echoed through the hall as she struggled to close the door. She noisily made her way into the kitchen and set down her armload of grocery bags. She grinned at him in greeting, her entire face lighting up like the sun peeking out from behind a cloud.

_Oh no._

"I wasn't expecting you so soon, I figured I had time to get some chili going before you got home. You hungry? I can whip something up real fast, or just call in a pizza or something. I'm sure you're exhausted."

Bucky's mouth went dry. He tried to say something - anything - but the words wouldn't come out. His entire world had been upended in the last ten seconds and now he was expected to make conversation? The universe was entirely unreasonable.

Darcy's smile dimmed a little at his silence and Darcy's brow furrowed with concern. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah - yeah, sorry." Bucky tried to smile but given that Darcy's look of concern only grew, he was pretty sure it was more of a grimace. "Just...glad to be home."

"I'll bet. This was a long one."

"Yeah. Thanks for looking after Alpine."

"Anytime. She's my girl, you know that."

Bucky nodded and they fell into a not entirely comfortable silence. Darcy, ever brilliant and far too good for the likes of him, picked up on it immediately. "You sure you're okay?"

"You're just a sight for sore eyes." The honesty slipped out without his permission. Darcy blushed at the comment and looked down at her shoes.

"You too, you know," she muttered. "I miss your grumpy ass when you’re gone. I'm glad you're home - uninjured, for a change."

Bucky groaned, then laughed. "One time."

"Okay, no. Lies. It's been way more than that."

"When?"

"You needed a new arm last time!"

"That's not an injury, I lose arms all the time!"

Darcy squinted at him. "Do you hear yourself when you talk?"

"It's a metal arm, Darcy."

"It's still _your arm_ , Bucky."

A wave of affection rushed through him and clearly affected his brain, which was the only explanation he had for the next words out of his mouth. "Can I take you to dinner?"

Darcy blinked. "Um. Like, right now?"

It was kind of her to assume he'd thought even that far ahead. "Whenever," he replied.

Darcy leaned back a little, assessing him. "What's going on?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, what's going on? You're acting weird."

"I can't ask you to dinner?" he hedged.

Darcy narrowed her eyes at him. "You never ask me to dinner."

"Maybe I'm trying something new."

"No you're not."

"No, I'm not." He sighed. "I..."

"Something's happened." Darcy continued to look at him, assessing. "Something's changed. What changed? You get hit with something?"

"RPG, got blown off a building," he replied, nonchalantly. "But that's not what this is," Bucky said.

"What is my life that that's a normal sentence," Darcy muttered to herself, before addressing him again. "Okay. So what is this?"

"This is me, asking you to dinner."

Darcy smirked. "I got that much, thanks."

Before he could overthink it or consider the consequences, Bucky jumped in, head first. "Like a date."

Darcy blinked again. "Oh."

Well. That wasn’t the response he would have hoped for. Had he thought far enough ahead to hope. "Yeah. It's dumb, sorry. I'll just...leave my house now and...move to Latveria." He bolted for the staircase.

"You don't even want my answer first?" Darcy called after him, her amused voice echoing through the hall.

Bucky grimaced. "Probably not?"

"Shame. There's a new Peruvian place in town that's supposed to be pretty good that I've been wanting to try."

Wait.

Bucky stumbled down the steps, tripping over his own feet as he rushed back to the living room.

It was ridiculous really. He was a trained assassin for crying out loud.

"You're...is that a yes?"

"That's a what the hell took you so long. Honestly."

Bucky grinned. "I never said I was smart."

"It's a good thing you're pretty," Darcy teased. "But seriously. I'd love to go to dinner. With you. On a date."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

Bucky's grin grew, until a sudden thought made his stomach drop. "Natasha is going to be insufferable about this."

Darcy raised an eyebrow at him. "Natasha?"

"Um."

Darcy waited patiently for Bucky to explain, her smile growing more amused the longer Bucky stalled his explanation.

"Natasha...might have suggested...that my regard for you was...more than friendly."

Darcy's shoulders shook with poorly suppressed laughter. "You didn't know that on your own?"

"I never said I was smart," Bucky reiterated through gritted teeth.

Darcy took pity on him. "Tell her I asked you. It's none of her business anyway." She shrugged like it was the easiest answer in the world.

"Like that's ever stopped her," he muttered.

Darcy's smile was - well, he was going to classify this smile as indulgent, because anything else was too mortifying to contemplate. "Bucky Barnes, do you want to come eat food with me, be endlessly charmed by my sparkling personality, and fall helplessly in love by the end of the night?"

"You assume I'm not helplessly in love already."

"I suspected, but it's nice to have confirmation."

They grinned at each other. The very last of Bucky's tension evaporated, leaving him feeling light and giddy for the first time in longer than he could remember.

Maybe this was what he'd been missing. It wasn't his house that he wanted to get back to - it was his home. Which included the house itself, sure. But it was also Alpine. It was also Darcy.

Dammit, Natasha had been right.

He was never, ever telling her that.

"So. Food?" Darcy asked, holding out her hand.

He grasped it, lacing their fingers together. "Food."

"Great! But first, lose the sweatpants. It's not that kind of place."

Bucky glanced down at himself and let out a startled laugh. "Be right back." He bolted for the stairs, this time in excitement rather than mortification. He changed quickly, scrambling to make himself presentable, before rushing back downstairs. Darcy had finished putting away the groceries and was waiting for him in the hall.

She leaned up on her tiptoes and kissed him softly, a gentle brush of lips that promised of more.

"Ready to go?" she asked.

He leaned down for another kiss. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm ready."


End file.
